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St. Louis Cardinals' Yadier Molina hits a two-run home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Milwaukee Brewers Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2013, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Wednesday, August 21, 2013 12:48 am

Cardinals lose 6-3 to Lohse, Brewers

By JOE TOTORAITISAssociated Press

Lance Lynn had a tough fourth inning and it cost him the game.

Kyle Lohse beat the Cardinals in his fourth try this season and Sean Halton knocked in a career-high three runs to help the Milwaukee Brewers defeat St. Louis 6-3 Tuesday night.

"We lost it," Lynn said. "It wasn't good. When you have that kind of stuff and give up five runs on all singles, that is tough to swallow."

Lynn (13-7) got roughed up in the fourth, highlighted by Halton's two-run single with the bases loaded.

Milwaukee's first six batters in the frame reached, loading the bases twice with no outs. The Brewers used five singles and got some help when Lynn muffed a comebacker.

Lynn knew what he did wrong.

"Don't give up a bunch of hits and get some outs," he said. "A hit is hit, a run is a run. You just can't let that happen"

Scooter Gennett drove in the first run with a single. After Aramis Ramirez singled and Khris Davis reached on Lynn's fielding error, Halton drove them in with a line drive to center that doubled his season RBI total. Logan Schafer followed with an RBI single and Norichika Aoki tacked on the last run with a sacrifice fly.

"We stacked together a bunch of hits (Monday), and they did the exact same thing," St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said. "It is just a matter of stopping it when it gets going. We did the same thing yesterday. We found holes and created a rally."

Kolten Wong, who had his first two major league hits on Monday night, continued getting on base for St. Louis. He went 3 for 5 with two singles and a double. The team's No. 1. pick in the 2011 draft joined the Cardinals from Triple-A Memphis on Friday night in Chicago.

"It was just one of those innings where things are dropping, not going our way," he said. "Unfortunately, they scored a majority of their runs in that inning."

Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said that it was good for the Brewers to finally have a big inning playing St. Louis.

"We hit some balls good that inning. We got a couple of breaks," he said. "Certainly, it was huge. Against them, we don't get many of those."

The big inning put Lohse in line for the win.

"They made me work for it," he said after improving to 3-5 in nine outings overall against his former team. "I felt like I threw a lot of really good pitches and they kept battling them off, fouling them off, taking close ones.

Lohse had his best major-league season in 2012 when he went 16-3 with a 2.88 ERA in 33 starts with St. Louis. The Cardinals did not try to re-sign him and he became a free agent.

Lohse said the win was just like any other even if it snapped a five-game losing streak against his former team.

"I don't put any more emphasis on any one game over the other," he said. "I went out there and tried to do what I'd been doing."

Lohse left after six innings with the Brewers leading 6-3. He earned his team-leading 17th quality start, including six in his last seven. He struck out four, walked two and allowed six hits and three runs, two coming on Yadier Molina's two-run homer in the fourth. Molina also doubled and scored in the second on Matt Adams' single.

John Axford and Brandon Kintzler each pitched a scoreless inning, and Jim Henderson pitched the ninth for his 19th save in 22 chances.

The Cardinals were ahead 3-0 when the Brewers fought back with a five-run rally in the fourth.

Halton set a career mark in the fifth with his third RBI of the game. Davis singled, stole second and scored on Halton's grounder into center.

Carlos Beltran singled in the fourth and scored on Molina's 10th home run of the season.

Adams beat the Brewers' defensive shift in the second inning, knocking in Molina with the Cardinals' first run when he blooped a single over the head of shortstop Jean Segura, who was positioned on the right side of second base. Molina was on with a double over the head of center fielder Schafer. The ball flicked off Schafer's glove and rolled to the wall.

The Brewers have almost no chance at the playoffs. So, the team is resigned to playing the role of spoiler.

"I know we have a stretch here where we're playing a lot of teams that are contending for playoff spots," Lohse said. "I don't care who it is. Feels good to kind of hurt teams' chances."

NOTES: St. Louis had its three-game winning streak snapped, but they have won six of their last nine games. ... It was Molina's 40th multi-hit game of the season and fourth consecutive multi-hit game. ... Lynn is 2-2 in four starts facing the Brewers. ... Brewers CF Carlos Gomez remained out of the starting lineup after spraining his right knee colliding into the center-field wall on Thursday night. He's missed five consecutive games. ... Segura stole his 37th base, matching Everth Cabrera of the San Diego Padres for the NL lead.